Antonie Dixon's sister gives evidence in court

When Antonie Dixon told the jury an astonishing tale of sexual abuse by his mother and beatings at the hands of Jehovah's Witnesses, they must have wondered whether any of it was believable.

Today they heard from someone else who was there at the time and she confirmed much of what he said.

According to Dixon's sister Carla, he was dubbed "devil spawn" by their mother.

Carla Dixon-Foxley says she was his closest friend and ally, but from a young age she knew something was not quite right with her baby brother.

"He used to bash his head on the couch and he used to just sit there and like that, bashing, bashing, bashing," Ms Dixon-Foxley says.

Ms Dixon-Foxley says Dixon was abused by their mother, who would tie him to a clothesline outside their Grey Lynn house and invite fellow members of the Jehovah's Witness church to beat him.

"It was like living in a madhouse," Ms Dixon-Foxley says.

She told the jury that Dixon was also sexually abused by members of the church. Among his abusers was one man who always carried a camera.

"Of course we know why he had the camera now," Ms Dixon-Foxley says. "He was taking pornographic pictures of my brother and his friends."

In cross examination, the Crown questioned Antonie Dixon's sister on whether she had ever seen him violent - especially violent towards his mother. She replied that as far as she was concerned, any violence towards their mother was justified.

"When you get backed into a corner for long enough and you get hurt for a long, long time, you have to jump back," Ms Dixon-Foxley says. "You have to defend yourself and that's what I believed it was. It was self-defence."

Ms Dixon-Foxley, who has a successful career as a nutritionist in London recalled a family conference where a psychiatrist asked her how she had managed to stay sane in the Dixon family home. She says she had no answer.

At the end of her evidence, Ms Dixon-Foxley blew her brother a kiss before walking over to hug him.